What Do Apple’s Policy Changes Mean for Your Facebook Ads?
From Facebook’s latest webinar, “Building for Privacy and Performance: Web Advertising Guidance for Apple’s Mobile Operating System Changes”
Apple’s iOS 14 privacy policy changes have begun being rolled out, much to the frustration of Facebook, who have criticised their lack of industry and business consideration. We attended Facebook’s latest webinar, “Building for Privacy and Performance: Web Advertising Guidance for Apple’s Mobile Operating System Changes,” to find out how the platform is planning to address the changes and its top tips for advertisers.
What changes are Apple making?
In June 2020, Apple announced three new app policies which are expected to take full effect this month:
Data ‘nutrition labels’ - Developers will be required to provide information to Apple about what information the app collects to be displayed alongside the app in the App Store
Tracking transparency prompt - When downloading or entering an app, users will be shown a prompt allowing them to allow or deny data tracking
Tracking via app/browser APIs - All of WebKit’s Intelligent Tracking Preventions will be toggled on in all browsers under iOS 14, which means full third-party cookie blocking and app-to-web conversions not supported
What is Facebook’s response?
Facebook has repeatedly made its disagreement with Apple’s approach and policy change clear. In its latest webinar, the changes made by Apple were described as being made “unilaterally, without industry alignment” and to the detriment of businesses, particularly SMEs and agencies. Despite this, Facebook says it has no other choice but to adopt Apple’s data tracking prompt, giving users the option to opt out of tracking on its apps. The other option? Getting removed from the app store - obviously a far worse option for businesses using its platform.
What will be the changes to Facebook ads?
To help these businesses and advertisers, Facebook has outlined the key changes advertisers can expect to see and the steps it is taking to try and mitigate them.
Loss of functionality and Facebook’s new AEM protocol
Apple’s new protocol for web attribution PCM (Private Click Measurement) will significantly restrict data that can be shared across businesses and platforms and does not support app-to-web conversion measurement and cross-domain measurement. Of course, for advertisers, the vast majority of conversions come from clicks in these apps which will now be affected by Apple’s new policy change, meaning they will not be able to monitor these conversions. Facebook’s new protocol AEM (Aggregated Event Measurement), introduced to mitigate some of these changes, limits transmission of user data while still supporting critical advertiser use-cases, as well as supporting app-web attribution and enabling flexibility for other platform privacy propositions. However, Facebook notes that AEM will not solve all of the impacts of Apple’s protocol and advertisers will lose functionality.
Limitations on events
The changes to Apple’s data policy now also mean that each Facebook domain will have an 8-event limitation for opted-out iOS users. With the new limits on data sharing, Facebook says advertisers won’t get the precise value of event conversation anymore either, and that they will see fewer reported conversions, though this won’t reflect actual iOS 14 conversions. Due to the delay of data, when an advertiser selects a new event from their list of 8 or changes the configuration, they won’t be able to optimise that event for 3 days. Advertisers will still be able to customise which events they use for optimisation at any time, though, so Facebook says there is still value in having more than 8 events to a domain. This month, it also says it plans to launch a tool to help with event ranking for optimisation, helping users to find the top 8 events and change these events according to their preferences.
Reduced optimisation and targeting
There will be changes to the conversion window and a reduction in website custom audience sizes. Therefore, advertisers may see declines in performance and face challenges with retargeting and prospecting (i.e. prospecting campaigns will be less effective).
Limited measurement
New limits on data use will drive changes to how Facebook attributes events for reporting. There will no longer be 28-day attribution and the view through will become limited. Advertisers will also see fewer reported conversions and for these reported conversions, breakdowns will no longer exist.
Changes to click through and view through can be seen in the table below:
4 tips for Facebook advertisers
The webinar outlined Facebook’s top 4 tips for all advertisers on its platform in light of Apple’s new policy changes.
All advertisers should verify their domain in Facebook Business Manager
Prepare to operate and define the priority of a minimum of 8-pixel events per domain
Anticipate changes to attribution windows and update automated rules if necessary
Identify campaign optimization strategies that may require testing (i.e. alternative audience options, different bidding strategies, etc.)
Let us know your thoughts
Did you attend Facebook’s webinar series? Will you be affected by Apple’s new privacy policy changes? Let us know your thoughts over on Twitter (@social_day) or in our Social Media Marketing Community on Facebook.
